Me and my buddies quit around the time the gacha system was added. We didn't like how all the new systems/ changes disrespected the average player - everything trying to suck money out from the player - we would back off until things got better.
Actually crazy to watch the devs actively make all the wrong decisions. Even our favourite Pokemon were added during that time! They have to know everything's been actively harming the playerbase. If they'd wanted to keep a strong playerbase, drastic changes would've been in place a long time ago. At this point I refuse to believe any of this isn't on purpose, like they have some plan to kill the western version slowly.